Debrecen4U August 31, 2026

Rotary Club Debrecen Donates School Supplies

Representatives of Rotary Club Debrecen presented a donation of school bags and school supplies to families connected with the Debrecen Municipal Family and Child Welfare Centre, primarily single-parent families raising three or more children, at an event held jointly with the Debrecen Charity Board on 28 August 2026.

In her welcoming remarks, Diána Széles, Deputy Mayor of Debrecen and Co-Chair of the Debrecen Charity Board, said that starting the new school year is very difficult for every family, but particularly for single-parent families. For years, the Charity Board has been working to find partners – entrepreneurs, businesses and non-governmental organisations – who can help make this period easier for families in need in Debrecen through their support and with the involvement of the Debrecen Municipal Family and Child Welfare Centre. Today, thanks are due to Rotary Club Debrecen for its support, which the Debrecen Charity Board has supplemented with school-supply packs. Diána Széles also reminded the parents present that applications for the school-starting allowance can be submitted to the Social Affairs Department of the Mayor’s Office until 31 October. The allowance is awarded on the basis of need, according to a specified per-capita income threshold in the applicant’s family. The amount is HUF 50,000 per primary-school child and HUF 40,000 per secondary-school child. Anyone who has not yet applied for this assistance but may be eligible is encouraged to find out more and apply for the school-starting allowance. Staff at the Debrecen Municipal Family and Child Welfare Centre can also help applicants complete the form required to apply.

Csaba Major, President of Rotary Club Debrecen, encouraged the children to look out for the Rotary Club’s distinctive gear-wheel emblem wherever they travel in Hungary or around the world, as they can be sure that help will be available there. Rotary Club is the world’s largest non-governmental organisation, present in more countries than the United Nations has member states. In Hungary, more than 1,200 Rotary members are active in over fifty clubs, carrying out charitable work with dedication and through contributions from their own incomes, in many cases with the aim of supporting younger generations.

Lajos Sedlák, a member of Rotary Club Debrecen and organiser of its charitable projects, thanked the municipality and the Debrecen Charity Board for always being partners in Rotary initiatives, enabling them to reach those they wish to help more effectively and efficiently. Speaking about the current donation, which was offered to a total of 30 children, he said that the backpacks, which can be used as school bags, and the pencil cases filled with stationery feature both a drawing of Debrecen’s symbol, the Great Reformed Church, and the Rotary Club emblem. This may also remind the children that there is an organisation they can turn to for help anywhere in the world. Lajos Sedlák also confirmed that children who do well at school can, when they are in their second year of secondary school, still go abroad for a year as exchange students to learn a foreign language with the support of Rotary Club, just as Diána Széles once did as a student.

Edit Bódor, President of the Debrecen Charity Board, highlighted the importance of direct contact in connection with the donation, which, because of its community-building nature, can be particularly significant for single-parent families. Such encounters are important for those who donate, for those who act as intermediaries between donors and recipients, and for those who receive the gifts. In this way, it is not only material objects that reach their intended recipients, but also a sense of mutual love, given wholeheartedly and shared within the community, can be experienced. Now, as the start of the new school year approaches, the Debrecen Charity Board was also able, thanks to other supporters, to add a school-supply pack and a little sweet treat to the family-oriented gift from Rotary Club Debrecen. The school-supply pack also contains exercise books with blank pages on which the children can draw colourful dreams. And one day, those dreams may come true!

Also present at the handover of the gifts were Klára Réka Bognár, former President of Rotary Club Debrecen, and Ibolya Aurélia Orosz, Director of the Debrecen Municipal Family and Child Welfare Centre.

Source and photo credit: debrecen.hu